THE ongoing expansion at Newcastle Building Society has led to the appointment of Wendy Lee as commercial director.

The 41-year-old brings considerable experience to the board-level position, having previously worked as sales development director at Legal & General.

She worked for 15 years at Norwich Union, working in all areas of distribution and sales before she became director of strategic partnerships.

She said: "Financial service providers face challenges and opportunities in equal measure as they respond to testing economic conditions, new regulations and modern lifestyles that require greater flexibility and innovation from products and services.

"Newcastle Building Society is meeting these challenges head-on and I am extremely excited to be on the management team.

"As commercial director, I am responsible for developing all sales and marketing activity within the branch network, the call centre and the society's commercial lending operation."

Newcastle Building Society chief executive Robert Hollinshead said: "With more than 800 staff, we are a strong and growing business. Wendy's experience and industry knowledge will be invaluable in taking this development forward."

Ms Lee is moving to the North-East from York with her partner. A keen runner, she is determined to take part in the Great North Run in the next few years.

Newcastle Building Society is the largest building society based in the North-East, and one of the strongest mutuals in the UK.

It has 52 branches in the UK and Gibraltar and assets under management in excess of £3.3 bn.